How can I encrypt my hard drive?

Question

I am running 16.04 and I want to encrypt my computer. How can I do that?

I haven't had much luck searching online.

Answer 1

Have you tried VeraCrypt ?

https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Downloads.html

Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.
Encrypts an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive.
Encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication).
Encryption is automatic, real-time(on-the-fly) and transparent.
Parallelization and pipelining allow data to be read and written as fast as if the drive was not encrypted.
Encryption can be hardware-accelerated on modern processors.
Provides plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password: Hidden volume (steganography) and hidden

operating system. More information about the features of VeraCrypt may be found in the documentation

I haven't tried the below links, but it should help

https://www.linuxbabe.com/ubuntu/install-veracrypt-ubuntu-16-04-16-10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY83PuG4uLE

Answer 2

There is documentation provided for every version of Ubuntu after 12.10.

The official document states:

During installation, check the checkbox “Encrypt the new Ubuntu installation for security

There is a good guide on eCryptfs here

Here are the quoted instructions:

First, install the necessary packages. From a terminal prompt enter:

sudo apt install ecryptfs-utils

Now mount the partition to be encrypted:

sudo mount -t ecryptfs /srv /srv

You will then be prompted for some details on how ecryptfs should encrypt the data.

To test that files placed in /srv are indeed encrypted copy the /etc/default folder to /srv:

sudo cp -r /etc/default /srv

Now unmount /srv, and try to view a file:

sudo umount /srv

cat /srv/default/cron

Remounting /srv using ecryptfs will make the data viewable once again.

You can find information here (some are old, but relevant):

• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FullDiskEncryptionHowto
• https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/11/privacy-ubuntu-1210-full-disk-encryption
• http://thesimplecomputer.info/full-disk-encryption-with-ubuntu
• Ubuntu full disk encryption with encrypted /boot
• Enable disk encryption after installation
• https://utappia.org/2016/03/23/how-to-do-a-full-disk-encryption-with-ubuntu-installation/

And many more resources found via Google.

Answer 3

You can use the "encrypt OS" option when installing Ubuntu but I've ran into errors with Nvidia video drivers trying to do that. But this will probably work if you aren't trying to use 3rd party drivers.

You can also use the "encrypt home directory" option when installing Ubuntu. I'm using this currently and I haven't had any issues.

Also there's a program called encfs which works well for encrypting folders. Install it using sudo apt-get install encfs and learn how to use it by typing man encfs